The central character must want something. They have a goal to achieve.

What are the stakes? They must be important to the main character.Conflict -- As the story progresses, make things worse for the protagonist.Take them out of their comfort zone.How does the ending play out? Make sure it's an emotional ending and satisfying to the audience. Chances are the audience will remember the ending if it's good.

To summarize:

What's the central idea that holds the story together?

Who's story is this?What do they want?Why can't they have it?What do they need in order to understand?What does the protagonist get at the end that they did not have at the start?

10 things that can go wrong while writing a story.

VEERING -- Sliding off course -- the story goes off on a tangent

NOTHING HAPPENS -- Imagine if you are the reader. You need to capture their attention as soon as possible and keep them glued to the page.

WHO'S THE PROTAGONIST?WHO ARE WE FOLLOWING?

NOBODY WANTS ANYTHING? -- Instead of proactive characters, we have a bunch of characters reacting to the situation. This is very boring. Make sure your characters, especially the main protagonist is ACTIVE rather than REACTIVE.

LACK OF CONFLICT -- everyone gets along. Look at LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE ( if you haven't watched it, I suggest you watch it and read the screenplay) -- if the family all got along in that -- it would make for a very boring movie.

LEAVING PARTS OF THE STORY OFF THE PAGE -- sometimes you'll have characters mention things that happened rather than showing them. Sometimes it's better to SHOW rather than TELL. It also adds more flavor and depth to the story.

PLOT, BUT NO STORY. Make sure you have INTERNAL and EXTERNAL GOALS for your protagonist.

THIRTY PAGES IN -- still nothing happening.

ENACTING NOT DRAMATIZES

STORY SEARCHING FOR MEANING -- what's the protagonist's internal goal?

I've been trawling through the internet and have come across the 22 rules of storytelling by Pixar as tweeted by Emma Coats. Everyone seems to jumping on the bandwagon and writing about them. So I thought, why not?

When it comes to animated movies you won't get better than Pixar Animation Studios. Barring Cars and Cars 2, they pretty much have cornered the market when it comes to animation. Although I will point out that Studio Ghibli are pretty close to being on par with them. But as far as staple animation goes, Pixar outshines most of its competitors.

I don't know why, but I just couldn't get my head around talking motor vehicles. Give me talking bugs, toys, fish, robots any day of the week.

Anyway, here are the 22 Rules.

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. #2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different. #3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite. #4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. #5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free. #6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal? #7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front. #8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time. #9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up. #10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it. #11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone. #12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself. #13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience. #14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it. #15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations. #16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against. #17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later. #18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining. #19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating. #20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like? #21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way? #22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.When it comes to learning about screenwriting and story structure, Pixar pretty much have it nailed.Brave comes out on the 17th August.

Not sure which writers they have for Toy Story 4. But I hope they get Michael Arndt back on board. A great job on Toy Story 3.

Movies SHOW… and then TELL. A true movie is likely to be 60% to 80% comprehensible if the dialogue is in a foreign language.

PROPS are the director’s key to the design of ‘incidental business’: unspoken suggestions for behavior that can prevent ‘Theatricality.’

A character in isolation is hard to make dramatic. Drama usually involves CONFLICT. If the conflict is internal, then the dramatist needs to personify it through the clash with other individuals.

Self pity in a character does not evoke sympathy.

BEWARE OF SYMPATHY between characters. That is the END of drama.

BEWARE OF FLASHBACKS, DREAM SEQUENCES and VISIONS. In narrative/dramatic material these tend to weaken the dramatic tension. They are more suited to ‘lyric’ material.

Screenplays are not written, they are RE-WRITTEN and RE-WRITTEN and RE-WRITTEN.

Screenplays come in three sizes: LONG, TOO LONG and MUCH TOO LONG.

Student films come in three sizes: TOO LONG, MUCH TOO LONG and VERY MUCH TOO LONG.

If it can be cut out, then CUT IT OUT. Everything non-essential that you can eliminate strengthens what’s left.

Exposition is BORING unless it is in the context of some present dramatic tension or crisis. So start with an action that creates tension, then provide the exposition in terms of the present developments.

The start of your story is usually the consequence of some BACKSTORY, i.e. the impetus for progression in your narrative is likely to be rooted in previous events – often rehearsals of what will happen in your plot.

Aphorisms - not a shooting script

Coincidence may mean exposition is in the wrong place, i.e. if you establish the too-convenient circumstances before they become dramatically necessary, then we feel no sense of coincidence. Use coincidence to get characters into trouble, not out of trouble.

PASSIVITY is a capital crime in drama.

A character who is dramatically interesting is intelligent enough to THINK AHEAD. He or she has not only thought out present intentions, but has foreseen reactions and possible obstacles. Intelligent characters anticipate and have counter moves prepared.

NARRATIVE DRIVE: the end of a scene should include a clear pointer as to what the next scene is going to be.

Ambiguity does not mean lack of clarity. Ambiguity may be intriguing when it consists of alternative meanings, each of them clear.

‘Comedy is hard’ (last words of Edmund Kean). Comedy plays best in the mastershot. Comic structure is simply dramatic structure but MORE SO: neater, shorter, faster. Don’t attempt comedy until you are really expert in structuring dramatic material.

The role of the ANTAGONIST may have more to do with the structure of the plot than the character of the PROTAGONIST. When you are stuck for a third act, think through your situations from the point of view of whichever characters OPPOSE the protagonist’s will.

PROTAGONIST: the central figure in the story, the character ‘through whose eyes’ we see the events.

ANTAGONIST: the character or group of figures who represent opposition to the goals of the protagonist.

DRAMATIC IRONY – a situation where one or more of the characters on the screen is ignorant of the circumstances known to us in the audience.

If you’ve got a Beginning, but you don’t yet have an end, then you’re mistaken. You don’t have the right Beginning.

In movies, what is SAID may make little impression – unless it comes as a comment or explanation of what we have seen happening.

What is happening NOW is apt to be less dramatically interesting than what may or may not HAPPEN NEXT.

What happens just before the END of your story defines the CENTRAL THEME, the SPINE of the plot, the POINT OF VIEW and the best POINT OF ATTACK.

Make sure you’re chosen the correct point of attack. Common flaw: tension begins to grip too late. Perhaps the story has to start at a later point and earlier action should be ‘fed in’ during later sequences.

What happens at the end may often be both a surprise to the audience and the author, and at the same time, in retrospect, absolutely inevitable.

Character progression: when you’ve thought out what kind of character your protagonist will be at the end, start him or her as the opposite kind of person at the Beginning, e.g. Oedipus who starts out arrogant and ends up humiliated, Hamlet who is indecisive at the start and ends up heroic.

ACTION speaks louder than words.

Most stories with a strong plot are built on the tension of CAUSE AND EFFECT. Each incident is like a domino that topples forward to collide with the next in a sequence which holds the audience in a grip of anticipation. ‘So, what happens next?’ Each scene presents a small crisis that as it is revolved produces a new uncertainty.

DRAMA IS EXPECTATION MINGLED WITH UNCERTAINTY.

A SHOOTING SCRIPT IS NOT A SCREENPLAY. The beginning screenwriter should be discouraged from trying to invent stories in screenplay format.

A FOIL CHARACTER is a figure invented to ask the questions to which the audience wants answers (asking the question may be more important than getting the answer.)

NEGATIVE ACTION (something not happening) needs to be dramatised in positive action terms. You show something starting to happen which then is stopped.

TWO ELEMENTS OF SUSPENSE ARE HALF AS SUSPENSEFUL AS ONE. Aristotle’s principle of unity means that one dramatic tension should dominate. All others are subordinate to it.

CONFRONTATION SCENE is the obligatory scene that the audience feels it has been promised and the absence of which may reasonably be disappointing.